


Objective Danger

by bonehandledknife (ladywinter), Primarybufferpanel (ArwenLune)



Series: The Mountains Are The Same [34]
Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Breeder Court, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied unnamed Slit reference, Warboys dealing with a post-Joe world, warboy politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-05 20:05:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5388533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladywinter/pseuds/bonehandledknife, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArwenLune/pseuds/Primarybufferpanel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Objective danger: Danger in a climbing situation which comes from hazards inherent in the location of the climb, not depending on the climber's skill level. Most often these involve falling rock or ice, or avalanches.</p><p>
  <i>Ace wished he'd thought to drop by Furiosa's quarters in the afternoon, so he'd known sooner. Would have had a few more hours to get past the shock of it. Instead, he'd found out late at night, barely slept, and had to cope with Council in the morning. <br/></i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Ace dropped down on a ledge in the hallway outside the council room, and let his head knock back against the rock wall. He was tempted to do it a few more times, it might hurt less than his current headache.

He was still trying to wrap his mind around what he'd been told last night, by Kompass and Austeyr and Furiosa. Could it really have been poisoned— how could Joe—for _all that time?_ His loyal warboys?

There had been things under Joe that hadn't seemed right to Ace, but it’d seemed no worse than the general wrongness of the world after it’d fell, he'd seen no other path than the one that Joe laid out for them. None that lead people, starving and thirsty, into some sort of stable life, a peace that was foreign to most of the Wasteland. He’d thought the war boys to be protectors of the Citadel, and honored for it. But Joe decried a soft death even as he’d made sure the Mechanic drove them towards one. The whole thing spun his head.

Ace wished he'd thought to drop by Furiosa's quarters in the afternoon, so he'd known sooner. Would have had a few more hours to get past the shock of it. Instead, he'd found out late at night, barely slept, and had to cope with Council in the morning.

It had been… the Tribunes had been almost triumphant at this proof that Joe was as— as _evil_ as they'd been saying. "They'll have to believe us now," the sharp blonde one had said.

They’d wanted to announce it right away, from the loudspeakers, so that the entire Citadel can find out all at once.

There'd been some loud disagreements until the small pup brought by one of the breeders - by the one that had been Guzzer's favourite - woke up, then everybody had reined it in.

It’d taken some careful talking from the crew to back them down from such a rash action.

“Belief is not certain,” Kompass tried to explain, awkwardly, “You’ve done well with the rations, the stories, the pups, but something so— it will take more to convince some of the war boys.”

“But you’ve found the proof, we can just announce it!” Dag protested sharply, “What, is this because we’re women that we can’t announce it ourselves? Because we were Joe’s wives?”

“Some? But I wouldn’t even say _Ace_ should loudspeaker the news,” the war boy shrugged awkwardly, “They’re going to have to see the proof with their own eyes, have time to work the new parts into their engines.”

"And people get angry at the messenger," Ace had added. At least, that was the way it had always worked.

Her mouth opened soundlessly, and then closed for a moment, “Are you… trying to _protect_ us?”

“Trying to protect crew right? The Boss picked you to save, and to lead. War boys aren’t going to react easily to this news, it’s going to have to come from within if you don’t want them to circle the rigs on you.”

“Why is it so hard for them to _understand?!_ ” The spindly woman hissed, clearly frustrated, hand on the nearly indistinct swell of her belly, “Why are they taking so long?”

“It’s been _seventeen days_ since Joe died,” Kompass protested, “less since our first Tenday when we learned how Joe could be towards his wives, let alone—”

"Dag," the History Women had said gently. She spoke softly, but Ace had noticed everybody quietened to listen to her. "You had time and space to think about how wrong it all was, before this all happened. You had others it was safe to share your thoughts with. I helped you find words and concepts for the wrongness, gave your books to show you ways things could be better, and it still took longer than seventeen days. Everybody else is only just starting the process. It's going to take some time."

“But do we have the time?” the Tribune challenged, “They’ve lived in this Citadel, same as we all did, they have eyes, feelings. They _must_ have felt the wrongness, of being half-lived if nothing else. Are you letting them continue to drink Joe’s water?”

“We already aren’t, if you’re speakin’ literal,” Janey spoke up, “All are getting their water from the copper pipes.”

Cheedo interrupted quietly, “But the longer you keep it a secret why, the harder it is for the secret to come out without people being angry.”

“We’re not keeping it secret though,” Kompass said, frustrated at the misunderstandings, "We have enough proof now, we can call a Dispute in the Pit this afternoon."

“And it’ll be quicker than just announcing it?”

“It’d be faster in the long run, and stick better.” Ace took a breath, and then looked at the woman in curiosity, “Why you so insistent that there’s no time? Need to get this driven right, I’m thinking, not fanging it on an over-heated engine.”

He saw the rest of the Council look at her, even the Tribunes had something about the eyes that seemed concerned but also confused.

Tribune Dag dashed her eyes to the window, and curled in on herself, and between one breath and the next blurted out, “I have maybe 150 days before this sprog bursts out of me. Would rather there’d be nothing foul around for it to feed on.”

The Tribunes sucked in a surprised breath but the war boys exchanged confused glances.

Tribune Dag suddenly loomed over them, hissing her words, “If one word that I’m carrying one of Joe’s seed leaves this room…I’ll—I’ll shred you _myself_ . I will _not_ have war boys call my baby _his_ . _Do you hear me_?”

 _Joe’s seed?_ Ace blinked, he hadn’t know that any other wife had been carrying. With how Corpus stepped down, Ace was not sure that those who’d want Joe’s sons take up rule would have any traction. But he didn’t know how much of that was because Corpus might as well have been a half-life, health visibly cut short by the Wasteland’s sickness. If the Tribune’s pup was full-life...

"Yeah, of course, that would be—" Austeyr said. "Bad."

...if the pup was male and became a rallying point...

Ace grimaced and nodded. Luckily the Council had wrapped up quickly thereafter, with their communal horror over the idea of Joe’s seed re-taking root in the Citadel. They reached agreement that the war boys should be informed quickly, and got assurances that it could be handled completely by war boys in their own way.

The Tribunes, Milkers, and other women seemed surprised that they even _had_ their own ways around disagreements separate from the Imperators and Joe, which seemed odd to Ace because what group didn’t have fights within themselves? Did the women never disagree?

 

A squeal startled Ace from his thoughts, and he blinked at the toddler that latched onto his lower leg. It's mother following after. The pup had brown skin, dark curly hair twisted up in little knots.

"Hey," he said softly, looking from the kid to the breeder that stood watching. "Many."

"It's Marienny now."

Ace nodded. "Marienny."

She sighed and sat down next to him on the ledge, moving a little ungainly with her big belly.

“That news ya’ll brought up today,” she said softly, bleakly. "Hit me that Guzzer didn't need to die,"

"No." He could give her no more than his weary acceptance of the new information they'd been given. "He didn't."

The kid got hold of one of Ace's trouser pockets and pulled itself up, and he helped him climb onto his knee. Precocious little pup, Ace thought, would probably do well as a lancer if he kept climbing so well. He shifted a little to settle in better and the pup moved with him easily, keeping his balance.

He shouldn’t be surprised that Guzzer’s get would have all the makings of a fine war boy someday. The thought that he might actually live long enough to see that happen, startled him. Maybe even long enough to teach him and get him settled in with a good crew.

"She's his," Marienny said, nodding at the kid with a smile through the sadness.

_Oh._

The toddler squealed with laughter as she rode his knee. She had some of Guzzer's features, though her colour was the most noticeable.

Ace had thought he would have been able to tell the pups apart, those which would grow up to be breeders and those to be war boys but— But the women weren’t necessarily breeding now, right? Only if they wanted.

Ace hummed and jiggled his leg, keeping his hands near the kid so he could catch her if she should slip. Not a war boy, then. Seemed a waste. Or maybe all that was changing, too. Furiosa had… she had been stuck up there, with breeding duties, for Joe. But she’d been thrown out, and instead of being one of those who starved out there with the Wretched, or become a Milker, or folded into those Soundless as some former wives apparently had been, she had lived among the war pups before becoming war boy, and then Imperator.

He wondered how many women could have been, or wished to have been, fighting with them on behalf of the Citadel instead of what Joe had designated them to be. How many hadn't had the chance to grow into themselves, because they weren’t able to claw their way out and up as their Imperator did. Maybe they would never reach the heights that she did, but they were always short-handed in the repair bays and on the bikes, needing light-weight bikers with good reflexes.

He thought he’d like to make sure this little one had that option.

"Shoulda seen his face when he told us you'd said your new pup was definitely of his seed." He smiled a little at the memory of Guzzer's excitement after he'd heard Marienny had given birth.

"Damarwulan. I wish I could have let them meet," she sighed. "Nearly strong enough to go to the dens, now. Well, before things all changed. They say I get to keep him, now."

Ace nodded. The younger pups who could lift the wheel were spending only the daytime in what the Tribunes called 'school' instead of being taken away to the war pup dens. They'd learn what the warboys taught pups, preparation for doing war, but also history and readin', and spent the rest of the time with their mamas. There was ongoing protest among the warboys, who generally thought that if they'd had to endure something then the new ones did too, but Ace thought it was a workable plan. It would cut out a lot of the caretaking of the littlest war pups, who'd tended to cry and wail a lot in their first weeks until they learned it didn't help any.

Guzzer had liked poking the pups into giggles, or making faces at them until they forgot to be upset.

"Guzzer liked you so much.” He smiled at the kid’s cheerfulness, reminded of the look about Guzzer’s face when describing the breeder, “Had to keep an eye on him, he kept doing kamakrazee shit. Hoping Furiosa would reward him with an extra visit to you.”

She made a strangled noise and curled forward, and Ace's hand twitched toward her, a little helpless, but returning it quickly to catch the little girl as she wobbled. He'd thought she'd want to know how much she'd mattered to Guzzer, but maybe he'd just hurt her. It made his mouth tug downward despite himself.

"He was real excited you wanted pups from him," he tried. "Felt honoured."

The little girl patted at his face, and he forced a smile for her.  

“It’s good to hear him spoken of. None of the others in the court much knew him at all,” she said quietly, “Good to get to be there at Tenday and hear his name. Always felt like,” and her voice dropped to a whisper, “I was just supposed to be happy he'd gone to Valhalla. I didn't know you still thought about him too.”

"Furiosa does too, still wears his belt," Ace said. He hesitated. "You could visit her to talk?" Remembering Gale's words about letting her grieve, he thought maybe that might be good. And he thought Furiosa would enjoy meeting this little girl, too.

Marienny glanced at him. "You think she would…? I know she's been avoiding people for a bit."

Ace made a snap decision, remembering Gale’s words about having support, "Want to go now? I'll come with you, if you like."

She still hesitated.

"If she'll shout, she'll be shouting at me," he told her, with a quirk of his lips. “An’ probably she won’t, can’t know unless you go.” He didn't think Furiosa would mind the company, but Marienny only knew her as Imperator.

"Fine. Darana slept through most of the council, so she should be fine for another while."

Ace pushed to his feet, hefting the giggling toddler under his arm, and reached down to help up Marienny. 

As they walked down the hallway he heard voices behind them, coming from the council room.

"—doesn't sound like an unhappy child to me."

"—just want to make sure."

He turned around, hands circling the squealing toddler's torso as he let her 'fly' through the air, and saw Tribune Dag and one of the Milkers stare at him. Ace didn’t let it bother him much, they could look as much as they liked, Marienny was laughing and so was the girl-pup, and that was what mattered.

* * *

 

Marienny took a deep breath and held it, watching the Ace knock on the door of Furiosa's quarters. He looked comfortable, confident of his welcome, but she felt anything but. What if the Imperator didn't want to be bothered? She hadn't come to council, after all, had sent crew members instead.

Marienny didn't know the other woman beyond a handful of moments in the same space. She'd occasionally visited the breeder court to make sure there were no complaints about her crew, but Marienny had never actually spoken with her. The Imperator had always looked collected, calm, and distant. Not easily approachable and almost stilted when she’d seen her walk around the court.

The Ace opened the door and stuck his head in, and she could hear him exchange a few soft words with the person inside. Announcing her. It didn't sound like there was protest, so maybe Marienny was welcome after all.

The woman revealed when Ace opened the door, seemed altogether different than the remembered Imperator Furiosa. Exhausted. In many ways looking wounded which Marienny suspected the Imperator had never let herself look when Joe had been alive. Even in the breeder courts, the story grew of how Furiosa lost an arm practically stone-faced, with little more than annoyance. But she was not stone-faced now.

Her eyes drifted over Marienny and caught on Darana, burbling happily in the Ace's big arms.

Marienny sank into a careful crouch at a level with the Imperator who was sitting on her bed, “Ah, hello?”

Furiosa nodded at her in greeting, and waved a little awkward at the mattress, “Should be careful, carrying. Sit down if you like.”

It would be easier, with her belly’s current bulk. She settled a bit gingerly on the soft surface, and then turned to look at Guzzer’s Boss. Hesitated.

“Ace said… said I should come by. Chat a bit?”

The other woman made a questioning sound.

Marienny found herself at a loss of how to continue with her words. She would like to remember Guzzer with someone else but Furiosa seemed so listless that Marienny wasn’t sure that sharing her sadness was appropriate.

To Marienny's surprise the Ace settled down with them, forming a little seated circle. He set Darana on her feet, steadying her to make sure she wouldn't fall over. Furiosa's eyes caught on the toddler again with something that couldn't decide between interest and sadness.

"Guzzer?" she asked.

"My second, with him."

Furiosa's hand twitched toward Darana but dropped again.

"I miss him," she said, low and soft as if only to herself. "Guzzer." Then she made a gesture like plucking something out of the air and bringing it to her heart. Marienny stared at where her fist was cupped, and then looked up at Furiosa’s expression, blinking as if she hadn't realised what she was doing.

Marienny didn't know why, but she copied the gesture. It felt... right.

She smiled a little, hesitantly, at the Imperator. Was she overstepping? Taking something that wasn’t hers?

"He came to me," Furiosa nodded in answer, with a faint smile. "Asking me how he'd know if you liked him back."

Apparently she hadn't overstepped. Marienny blinked in surprise at the thought that Guzzer had talked about her. And not in the way war boys talked about breeders, apparently.

"What did you say?"

"I asked Ace to talk with Lizzybe first, to make sure he wasn't bothering you." She shrugged. "I know you didn't have any options - who could blame you for being sweet to a warboy if it improved your life?"

"He took such a shine to you," the Ace said, "Needed to know if it wasn't bothering you."

"She never told me," Marienny said softly, thinking it over. She was feeling all wet around the eyes. Not only knowing that Guzzer had still thought of her in the moments they weren't together, but also that these two people had been looking out for her.

"Good," said Furiosa. "I just wanted to make sure I wasn't indulging something you didn't want."

"Did he blush?" Marienny smiled through her tears. "He'd look so intimidating, and then his face would get hot."

Darana climbed into her lap, and she folded her arms around her child, rocking her softly.

"He was.. different, when he was thinking about you. I could always tell."

"Started talking about the next run, too," Ace added, absently wiggling his fingers at Darana so she could try to grab them from where she sat. "Always looking forward to the next moment that might get us sent to the Court, so he could see you."

Marienny felt her stomach swoop, and her eyes spilled over anew. To only get this now, this steady sureness that she'd been as important to him as he'd been to her. To only get this years after he'd gone to Valhalla.

Furiosa looked away, giving her a moment. She went over to a metal chest and unlocked it, rummaged inside for a moment. Came up with a weathered leather belt.

"Here. I think he'd have wanted to give you one if wearing one would not have…" Furiosa gestured vaguely. Wearing such a clear sign of favour from a warboy would have made Marienny's life difficult, made her something to be jealous over when she was supposed to be shared. "Should be alright now, though. I’ve got my crew keeping an eye on them."

Marienny clutched at the belt with an intensity that surprised herself.  It surprised her all over again the idea that they could choose not to, now. That she wouldn’t have to be shared. That, had Guzzer still been alive right now she could just have him alone and as much time as they both might wish. Her eyes leaked over and she dashed her hand against them, laughing at herself but also upset. “Look at me, watering like this. Should know better.”

A hand landed on her knee, and she looked up to see the other woman, eyes wet as well.

“Shouldn’t get addicted,” Marienny reminded them both.

“Joe’s gone,” Furiosa almost whispered, “enough to go around now.” She offered a flask of Aqua Cola.

“ ‘Sides, what Gale says?” Ace hummed, “could use letting the water run long as it needs.”

Marienny laughed at that through her tears because she didn’t know how to react. Was there really time and space to do this now? To grieve? She knew that the war boys had always had a public space set aside for things such as that (though was it really grieving?) but the women had always been locked away, sometimes even unsure whether it was allowed to show such things to each other, and thus increase each other’s sadness. It’s not like they all didn’t have stories of hurts.

There was so much pain to go around, pain about things they weren't supposed to feel pain about - wasn't their whole purpose to make pups to serve the Immortan? How could they feel upset when war boys appreciated them? How could they feel conflicted when they were bred? How could they feel sad when a healthy son went on to become a warpup, exactly as the Immortan intended? How could they feel anger or pain when a son was taken for the Tenday ceremony and did not return? It was something to celebrate when they could lift the Great Wheel and were taken straight to the Dens.

Yet it had never felt that way. Breeders hugged their sons and swallowed back their tears when the Warboys came to take them to Tenday. Every time knowing their might never see them again, never even recognise them if they somehow did happen to catch a glimpse of the pups. Knowing that their sons would forget their names.

Darana made a questioning gurgle and Marienny ducked her head down, cuddling her close. She was not sure which of them she was comforting.

 _But there's less to feel sad about now, isn't there?_ She thought, looking up, “I want to thank you again, for letting us keep our pups with us now. It does us good to be able to keep their hearts with us instead of having them be all swallowed up with everyone else.”

“I didn’t,” the Imperator looked awkward, maybe even a little small, shoulders stiff, “come up with that, it was the Tribunes. Not me.”

Marienny leaned forward carefully balancing the toddler, surprised, “If it weren’t for you, they wouldn’t have the standing they do. The safety to say their piece. Last time you holed up like this you came out with a chrome arm, or so the war boys say, more vicious than before.” She wanted to reach out to give some gesture of comfort but wasn’t sure if it was her place.

“The Citadel isn’t listening to the Tribunes? the Vuvalini?”

“Not so much as all that, but we all know that your gunhand is behind their words.”

"I hope that you'll teach our sons that their lives matter, not just their deaths."

"I don't have that much influence on the warboys."

Marienny and Ace both stared at her.

"Boss, we didn't know how to be crew until you taught us," Ace said.

"You were Xe’s crew," Furiosa said, puzzled.

"Maybe we was a crew, but we weren't a _crew_ ," he said with an emphasis he seemed to think clarified everything. Marienny bounced Darana absently as she tried to follow. Furiosa's lip twitched up in amusement.

“Do you remember that first run?” the war boy said, “Where almost all of them went out, tryin’ to be chrome?”

"I saw them fall. Wondered if I was going to have to get the Rig back on my own."

“Thought I was _rust_ for asking for yer crossbow instead of leaping onto the Buzzard rig and fireball that whole line trailing on that flank.”

Marienny saw the confused expression on Furiosa’s face from the corner of her eye. She herself was staring at Ace too, never knowing this story and never hearing any story of a war boy avoiding Valhalla. It made sense with Ace bein' so old, but...

"You… thought that's what I wanted?"

"Imperator Xe would have—"

Furiosa just huffed, “From what I could see, that man preferred to sit in the back of the cabin, wasting bullets.”

“Ain’t wrong about that,” Ace conceded, “And his crews tended to… waste lances too.”

“And themselves, isn’t that right?” Marienny thought about the high turnover with Xe, who’d seemed to have new crew come back with every run, and never very many. She hadn't been with the breeders for long before Furiosa took over, but she remembered that.

"You taught us how to make ourselves count." Ace pressed, “do you think any other Rig has cranes like ours did? That anybody ever thought to rescue warboys from outriding vehicles? We saw you spend all that time on modifying it, adding the bug up top for something to duck behind."

“Defense,” Furiosa elaborated, even though Ace only looked at her like that word was strange.

"I wouldn't have met Guzzer maybe more'n twice, before you got the War Rig. None of the other boys we saw lasted more than a few moons. You made him stick around." Marienny cast her eyes to the side, “truthfully I’d hoped to see him around for longer but, y’get what you can, right?”

She startled when Furiosa's hand rested on her forearm.

"I'm sorry." The Imperator said. “And I’m sorry I didn’t realize sooner,” she addressed this to Ace.

Ace waved her apology off, “Don’t have to realize it, you’ve done it anyway. What I’m sayin’ is that you’ve made us strong; a strong crew. And don’t think that people haven’t noticed.”

There was a urgent knocking on the door.

Their heads darted up but it was already opening. Ace shot to his feet, Furiosa following a little slower. Marienny protectively hugged her daughter closer.

"Furiosa, you have to come!" it was the youngest Tribune, the one with the dark hair. "The Warboys are killing each other!"

The Imperator turned to Marienny and helped her up.

"I'll go back to the court and bar us in," Marienny said, hefting Darama onto her hip.

"Gilly went up to make sure the Milking Mothers are barricaded too," the Tribune said breathlessly.

"One of us will come by when it’s safe," Furiosa promised.


	2. Chapter 2

The shouting and screaming echoed between the walls in the lower Citadel and rose up to meet them as they hurried down the hallways. Cheedo found herself glad Furiosa and Ace were flanking her. They could handle anything, surely? Even Warboys tearing each other apart.

The sounds only got louder once they entered the large cavern where the Pit existed, the sound bouncing along the walls not much muffled by the sand that had been spread across the large circle in the middle. It was currently almost filled with painted bodies, the fullest that she’s ever seen it, but this was not sparring or sport, with warboys sitting in concentric circles watching maybe one or two pairs of combatants in the center. No, to Cheedo’s eyes it looked like an outright free-for-all brawl, an unmitigated War.

She gasped when she recognised Oti in there, and she knew Oti, knew that he was— that he was careful and maybe even sensible, if such a word could be applied to a Warboy. Right now he was grabbing onto another warboy and shouting something Cheedo couldn't make out, and he followed it up with a headbutt to the other man's nose. Cheedo tried to hold back her dismayed cry as blood began to flow. It wasn’t the only blood being splattered about in the room and Oti’s opponent shouted and pushed back, exchanging strikes with Oti until the both of them disappeared into the crowd.

Two war boys hurtled themselves past Cheedo, punching, nearly bowling into her before Ace yanked her out of the way.

"THAT'S NOT WHAT IT SAYS! IT _CAN'T_!"

" _FIGHT_ ME!"

“Do you see what I mean?” Cheedo shouted, turning to Furiosa, who was looking over the room with a placid air. Was she still in that low state she’d been in for days? Didn’t she care at all that they were killing each other? There was blood _everywhere_.

Furiosa suddenly squatted to her confusion and started scanning the ground and Ace mimicked her, looking at the half of the room the Imperator wasn’t surveying.

“Don’t see anyone being trampled, you?”

“Nah, looks clear.” Ace agreed, rising.

Cheedo suddenly realized that Ace was also looking calm. She looked back and forth from the fighting, back to their faces, “What are you saying, why aren’t you worried?”

“They’re congressing? We told you about this in Council.” Ace shrugged, “That the issue with the lead’ll be brought up with the other war boys.”

“War boys congress when there’s a bigger dispute,” Furiosa nodded slowly, leaning against a wall, “Think last time one this large happened was over seating in the mess hall.”

“Yeah.” Ace agreed with a toothy grin, “We won that one.”

Then he seemed to sober. "Was much bigger, too. Not so many war boys left now."

“But this is just... I thought in Council you talked like you wanted it settled peacefully! You talked about preventing a fight!”

“With the Tribunes,” Ace said. “A fight with the _Tribunes_.”

“How does that—”

“Look, war boys will scrap. Things get settled that way, with fights, like release valves. No resentment after. You win fair and square, it's sorted out. If it’s just words, there’s no end to it.”

“And they _kill_ each other to settle things?” Cheedo demanded.

“Do you see anyone actually dying?” Furiosa asked patiently. “They’ll shove and shout at each other until their opinions are sorted out and then they’ll group on either side of the Dispute. The side with more will win any fight over the Dispute against the side with less.”

On the far side of the seething mass of bodies was a small clump of Warboys standing in the light of one of the air channels, and Cheedo recognised Kompass, bent over a book with another. They were arguing too, and loudly, but holding the book with the care it deserved was apparently stopping it from turning into a full on fight.

Occasionally one of the group would turn to the crowd and shout something, hard to hear over the din, but sounding like it was cited from what they were reading there. Now that Cheedo was in the room for a little longer she started to realized that a lot of the shouting was various war boys repeating the words for others in the back. Austeyr was off to one side trading heated words with various war boys that would split off and either get into fights themselves or go off to shout at others. Furiosa’s definition of ‘shove and shout’ otherwise seemed to involve a lot of blood, and she has the faint hope (but not much faith) that they were mostly bloody noses.

“So… they don’t actually fight after they’re all sorted into two sides?” Cheedo asked hopefully.

“Oh still they do.” Ace shrugged, “Though the winning side tends to let the losing beat on them some until they get over it.”

“Some?”

“Well, they’ll walk away.”

Cheedo backed away from Ace a little, giving him a narrow eyed look.

"You did not tell— I didn’t think it would look anything like—"

"HE DID _NOT!_ DADDY LOVED US!" a warboy suddenly bellowed right behind her, and Cheedo startled, losing her balance as a large warboy shoved past her.

Cheedo screamed as she fell down the ledge, trying to curl up into a ball and already seeing herself at the receiving end of kicks and punches. She landed hard and rolled, a rock in the sand scraping her cheek, and cried out, trying to brace for the pain of being trampled.

"ere, you okay, Tribune?"

She yelped when a large Warboy pushed his face close to hers. He had blood on his teeth. "Prob'ly best not to be in 'ere. Warboy brangling, right?"

She wanted to snap that it hadn't exactly been her choice, butwhen she looked beyond him, another warboy was standing with his back to her and his arms spread, blocking the mass of bodies from where she was on the ground.

“Don’t think there’s sand in th’ cut. Should be ok.” He held his hand out for her.

Maybe there were saner places in the Wasteland but for now, this was all they had.

Cheedo took his hand and he lifted her to her feet then steered her toward where Furiosa and Ace were making their way to her.

The two war boys nodded at her, at the Imperators, and then stepped a bit away. Then immediately resumed brawling again.

“Come on, you should get that cleaned out,” Furiosa said, ignoring the shouting, leading her out of the room. She turned back over her shoulder, “Ace?”

The new Imperator was looking over his shoulder, “This is gonna be strange, innit. Not being in there anymore.”

“Soon your ace is going to start barring you from the Pit, you know.” Furiosa said teasingly.

“Never quite said it was going to be this...”

“Hard?” Cheedo guessed.

“Unsatisfying?” Furiosa tried.

“... _Annoying._ ” Ace grumped, fingers twitching. He shook his head, mouth slanted long and thin.

"Come on.” Furiosa said with a smile in her tone, “We are going to trust that Kompass and Oti will sort this out."

Ace huffed, and followed them.

Cheedo hid a smile at the large man's grumpiness as she gingerly touched the cut on her face. She hoped that the other women wouldn't get too alarmed by it; her sisters had taken up defensive positions, spreading the Vuvalini across the several locations with the breeders and milkers. The Soundless had vanished after a brief, bitter fight between Feng and Miss Giddy about if the latter should come with them or stay with the Tribunes. Miss Giddy had stayed, and perhaps it had been Cheedo's imagination, because the Soundless' face did not give much away, but she thought Feng had looked.. hurt.

They’d thought to brace for a revolution, thought that it was the starting signs of rebellion or a coup.

She’s not sure how they’d react to knowing that it was simply the war boy’s idea of _politics_.

 

* * *

 

Furiosa had stayed in her quarters for days, listless and sleeping, seemingly uninterested in the Citadel. Kompass had been relieved when she got involved with reading the evidence about the lead, but he hadn't realised she'd actually gotten up and outside.

“What, she went down to the Pit?” Kompass stared at the youngest Tribune in surprise. They’d been trying to have regular meetups every day to compare notes on things they should keep an eye on, which Kompass had insisted on ever since the trouble with Lance went down. It’d been a relief to find a Tribune who’d been keen to hear out war boys with neither getting angry about everything she heard nor being overly forgiving over concerns; one who had a sort of mind to be suited to Roving and protecting from the shadows. She seemed cautious for the most part, which increased his surprise that she'd gone to grab the Boss to help.

“With Ace, yes. Everyone was… busy.” Cheedo said, scratching absently at a shallow cut on her face. “You were conversing with another war boy over papers and I didn’t want to, um, interrupt.”

When he raised a Dispute in the Pit against Joe, everyone had frozen. Disputes against a group or a situation had happened sometimes, like the one they’d had over rations or seating arrangements, but those were rare. Usually it’d be one war boy against another, them gathering those who would fight for a side and then the sides setting on each other. They’d never had a direct dispute with someone so far over their rank, let alone somebody who was already dead.

It was like having a dispute against an idea. The idea that Joe had loved them as he'd always claimed to. And at first some had even laughed that he could dispute such a thing, when he’d called out his grievance.

But then he’d followed by reading out-loud some sections of the Organic Mechanic’s journal and then the uproar started, even as some started running down the halls calling for congress at the Pit. When there were disbelieving shouts calling him a liar, Kompass had invited Warboys to come up and read aloud the evidence for themselves. Austeyr had himself started working the crowd, knowing he was magnetic.

Every warboy had a vote, but some counted for more than that because they tended to draw in other warboys. The Ace, before he'd had his promotion, had been the most magnetic - warboys who didn't know how they felt, tended to trust in his opinion and side with him.

There were also always some warboys who were anti-magnetic. There'd been the one warboy who had been so consistently the death to any dispute, because nobody wanted to be on his side, that it had become routine to keep him out of them, much to his displeasure. Apparently he'd died ruining the Wastelander's chrome car.

 _Asshole._ He thought. _Go to Valhalla all you like, but to take a V8 with you?_

Only an Imperator should have that honor.

Kompass was nevertheless glad that war boy left for the gates, he had never seemed particularly reverent of Joe and they didn’t need him siding with them on this. The crowd that Austeyr had attempted to work had quickly swelled as War boys came from the other parts of the Citadel and Kompass had lost track of Austeyr.

So many congressed that it was no wonder that he’d never even caught sight of when the Boss and Ace visited, with Tribune Cheedo.

 _It was good,_ he thought, _that the Boss’d left her room._ Maybe he could convince her to go out and visit somewhere else tomorrow, get her moving more again once she’d rested? She seemed to have gone quiet and tired again and perhaps even wiped out. The Dispute was still ongoing, though it was more about what they should do now. Everyone had agreed to break for meals and rest and to patch up a bit.

Some war boys had even braved tiptoeing into the Infirmary but it for some reason it was empty.

_Odd._

They’d shrugged and looked at the Soundless’ supplies a little uneasily and decided it could wait until later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonehandledknife: So as a wee child I grew up on what felt like [a brawl breaking on in Taiwanese government floor](https://www.google.com/search?q=tawain+congress+brawl&oq=tawain+congress+brawl&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.8361j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=119&ie=UTF-8) every other day. Men in business suits basically trying to beat the shit outta each other.
> 
> I wonder if that affected my aesthetic?


End file.
